Okay so here’s the deal, there is so much going on in this two-part episode that I’m not ultimately sure if they were good. But I’m a fan, so therefore I see it as awesome. Considering everything they were working with, this requires the audience to accept a whole lot of ridiculousness, and I’m pleased to see that on the whole it’s really working. I find that the DC television shows are far more successful at getting audiences to accept wild stories than the movies, probably because they’re smaller audiences, and they know what they’re getting into with a superhero story. Anyway it’s hard to separate in my head what happened in The Flash, but I’m going to try to remember. Also, I might nerd out so much in these two reviews. Whatever. Previously on The Flash, Cisco started dating a woman named Kendra but had a vibe vision of her with giant wings. Barry failed at stopping Zoom, who is far faster than him, and Harrison Wells is trying to find a way to help him get faster. Barry and Oliver Queen became BFFs long ago and are just a city away when things get rough. We’ve been setting up for Legends of Tomorrow, a new show that will be launched in January that is even more intensely comic book ridiculousness than these shows. I’m excited.

A new villain enters Central City named Vandal Savage. He’s been a major villain in the DC universe since the Golden Age of comics, he was introduced in 1944. He is going to be a regular antagonist in Legends of Tomorrow from what I’ve read, so it was good to bring him in here. He’s an immortal with a lot of strength, speed, and viciousness. He’s there to kill Kendra, who he calls Chay-Ara, claiming that he’s hunted her several times over a long time. Barry manages to zip in quickly enough to save Kendra and Cisco from his attack, but they have no idea what to go on with this guy. Barry decides the smart way to go is to bring them all to Star City where Team Arrow is, because Oliver has a little more experience with magic (now). He also is a little more practiced and lethal, not unlike Vandal himself. Team Flash meet up again with Team Arrow, but Oliver is fairly angry that they’ve brought trouble into his city, considering he’s been dealing with plenty of trouble himself. It’s always fun to see the contrast between Oliver and Barry, and the two cities too. The dark intensity of Star City/Oliver is different from the lighter spirited Central City/Barry. This gets more complicated when Vandal attacks Team Arrow directly at Oliver’s penthouse and Thea kicks him out the window, due to her bloodlust. I wonder how confused viewers are if they only see one show and have no idea who these people on Arrow are. Malcolm Merlyn arrives to spout out exposition about how Vandal’s survived for thousands of years and he’s no one to be trifled with. Things change when a mysterious winged man appears to sweep Kendra right off her feet and run away.

This is Carter Hall and he’s here to vaguely explain the Hawkman/Hawkgirl storyline. Okay here it is: They are reincarnated souls of the priestess Chay’Ara and Prince Khufu from Ancient Egypt. They are constantly reincarnated and then Vandal hunts them down to kill them and start the cycle again. He gets more power every time he does. I don’t think we know more about the story until the Arrow episode, so more on that soon. They trust Carter pretty damn fast, don’t they? “Okay we’ll just take your word on it!” Fine, I get they have to in order to move the plot along. They decide the only way for Kendra to accept who she really is, is to jump off a roof and claim her wings. Barry steps in quick to protect her, not willing to risk her life, and this connects to his fear that he can’t save everyone from Zoom. He failed against Zoom. He’s a failure in general, in his mind. Oliver reassures him that they can do this, and it has to be Kendra’s decision who she wants to be. This is hilarious since we all know that Oliver has trouble lying to people and trying to control them, but he’s been trying to turn over a new leaf. They’re against the wire because Vandal is going to get this staff from Central City, so now they have to head over there. Kendra chooses to leap off the building and gain her wings, but that doesn’t mean she has accepted who she is entirely. While in Central City, after confronting Vandal and nearly getting killed by him, Oliver sees his ex-girlfriend who claimed she miscarried their child. But lo and behold, her nine year old just the right age is there. Dum dum duuuum.

Also in Flash verse: Caitlin and Harrison are working on a serum that will temporarily boost Barry’s super speed. It’s called Velocity 6, but in the comics there’s one called Velocity 9, which I assume it will be upgraded to eventually. It’s a drug that gives people speed, but there are some major side effects we’ll be seeing soon I’m sure. Harrison wants to use it on Jay, who miraculously shows up just for this, but he’s like lol no why would I let you experiment on me. Except Patty shoots Harrison, thinking he’s evil obviously, and Jay needs to take it to temporarily get his speed back. He saves Harrison’s life, but warns him to stop making it. Velocity 6 is relevant because Vandal Savage is the one who created Velocity 9, and since he’s being introduced here, it’s not a coincidence. I wonder if this plays into who Zoom is. Or maybe it’ll just be about what Barry and Harrison are willing to do, how far they’re willing to go, to beat the bad guy. All the way, I bet.

There’s a lot going on here so I’m not so sure we get a lot of time to sit with the characters or their feelings. Kendra’s lovely and the actress is doing a great job with her, but I’m not at a place yet where I care about her enough for this to get as big an impact. Still, she’ll have her own show soon to win our hearts with. I feel like I can’t help but mention that white guys playing Carter and Vandal feel awkward when they do the Ancient Egypt storylines. I liked that they cast a WOC as Kendra, I feel like they could’ve had the opportunity to do more diversity for those roles, but I often am screaming into a void on that issue anyway. I do appreciate that they manage to make crossovers seem like natural parts of the story. Yes it seems a little too easy for Barry to decide “oh we need Team Arrow’s help!” so they can do this cutesy connection, but whatever, it works. Even if I think Oliver’s going to punch Team Flash the next time they randomly decide to tell all their friends his secret identity. Like is there even a point to having one now? Cisco revealed Barry’s by accident to Kendra. Pull an Iron Man, boys. Overall this got me excited for the next episode, so let’s move on to that!